Beneteau 235 big enough for ocean travel?
- Thread starter flyingrv6
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Pacific Seacraft 25
You might find one near your price range. A small but seaworthy boat with a small diesel and shallow draft full keel. My brother had one and sailed it in the Pacific near Guam for a few years. I almost bought one of these boats. The owner said that it had been sailed down the left coast to Chile and back. We decided that it was just too small for us and we ended up with our Pearson 323 which is a larger boat described as a rugged coastal cruiser. We think that it will be fine in the Bahamas but so far we haven't met any really bad weather. Not even a gale. We did sail overnight last spring in 20 knot winds with 5-6' seas without a reef. The boat did fine though I did consider putting in a reef a couple of times. Those conditions in a B23.5 would be rough!!! Some people that I know consider such conditions rough in a Catalina 30. I met a guy who sailed from Miami to the Bahamas in a B23.5 and spent a month there. It was he and his son. He said that he had a great time but was very carefull about picking a weather window to cross the stream. If you can get enough water and food and follow the thorny path you could probably make it to South America. The thorny path route plan is to wait out rough weather and make a bunch of short passages in fair weather. A beamy fast boat would be perfect for this strategy. As already mentioned a beamy boat once flipped will be slow to right itself..)especially loaded with a lot of stuff) and might sink before it does so. Generally anything with a capsize ratio greater than 2 should be suspect for open water use. Our Pearson's CR is 1.75 and some blue water boats are less. The range of positive stability is a better indicator but isn't available for many boats and changes when the boat is loaded. A good sailer that's lucky can do a lot. But a good sailer knows his boat's limitations. A rugged boat gives far more options and a bigger safety factor. If I had a B23.5 and really wanted to go I'd probably go. But I'd take it out in rough weather in a safe area a few times to see how it handled first. You don't want to find out that it's handling sucks 100 miles from safety at 3 am.
You might find one near your price range. A small but seaworthy boat with a small diesel and shallow draft full keel. My brother had one and sailed it in the Pacific near Guam for a few years. I almost bought one of these boats. The owner said that it had been sailed down the left coast to Chile and back. We decided that it was just too small for us and we ended up with our Pearson 323 which is a larger boat described as a rugged coastal cruiser. We think that it will be fine in the Bahamas but so far we haven't met any really bad weather. Not even a gale. We did sail overnight last spring in 20 knot winds with 5-6' seas without a reef. The boat did fine though I did consider putting in a reef a couple of times. Those conditions in a B23.5 would be rough!!! Some people that I know consider such conditions rough in a Catalina 30. I met a guy who sailed from Miami to the Bahamas in a B23.5 and spent a month there. It was he and his son. He said that he had a great time but was very carefull about picking a weather window to cross the stream. If you can get enough water and food and follow the thorny path you could probably make it to South America. The thorny path route plan is to wait out rough weather and make a bunch of short passages in fair weather. A beamy fast boat would be perfect for this strategy. As already mentioned a beamy boat once flipped will be slow to right itself..)especially loaded with a lot of stuff) and might sink before it does so. Generally anything with a capsize ratio greater than 2 should be suspect for open water use. Our Pearson's CR is 1.75 and some blue water boats are less. The range of positive stability is a better indicator but isn't available for many boats and changes when the boat is loaded. A good sailer that's lucky can do a lot. But a good sailer knows his boat's limitations. A rugged boat gives far more options and a bigger safety factor. If I had a B23.5 and really wanted to go I'd probably go. But I'd take it out in rough weather in a safe area a few times to see how it handled first. You don't want to find out that it's handling sucks 100 miles from safety at 3 am.
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